AuthorTopic: the raving texans....rory storm (Read 17976 times)

They record the single America that flops and the work starts to ebb away. Paul sings Yesterday on TV after telephoning the family to watch especially. Lou Walters leaves. Brien Epstein dies and The Cavern goes bankrupt. RSATH are there on the last night playing as per usual and actually barricade themselves in to the Cavern to try and stop the bailiffs gaining entry (this despite not getting paid). Rory is stunned that Paul and John are at the 1966 cup final supporting Everton as he thought Lennon was a red. Albert Stubbins is on the cover of Sergeant Pepper and Rory just does not get the new Beatles sound such as Tomorrow Never Knows. Ty Brien tragically dies unexpectedly and the band eventually break up.

Rory is engaged to a stunning dancer (name and photograph in the book) None of his relationships have lasted more than a week. Her family insist he does a normal job, he works as a taxi driver and gets arrested for swearing at the other cabbie. He insists he could not get the word "For" out fast enough as his stammer is back with a vengeance.

He is fired and lasts only 6 months working on a boat. He then is let go from working in a hairdressers again for his stammer. On holiday with the fiancé, he is devastated one day when looking for her to find her making love to another man on the beach who she then introduces to him (again name provided) Rory is shattered and breaks off the engagement. His parting words are "Get your parents to get him an office job" He sells the Vauxhall Cresta.

A Dr (speech Therapist) tells him to forget about his life in show business. He must adjust to normal life. Rory is struggling with his stammer but takes a job as a door to door salesman selling stationary. He is mistaken for another vocalist by a customer and flees Liverpool after working as a Deejay and as a water ski instructor he befriends two German circus performers. They sell him a Cadillac. He then drives to Amsterdam to find work.

He enjoys Amsterdam finds work and learns a little Dutch and settles in with an arty crowd. He lives in and attic and has his parents over for a visit. At the beginning of 1972 a telegram arrives to inform him his Dad has had a stroke. He leaves Amsterdam wearing an afghan coat and arrived three hours too late and his father has passed. Things are hard; Violet is a mess Rory is increasingly detached from his social group Vi needs more ECT. Rory has on going dental appointments for tooth ache and Iris is only living a couple of minutes away from Rory and Vi. One night Iris tries to contact them. No sign of the pair and Iris asks the neighbours to check they are ok. On entering the house a suicide note is found written by Violet. Rory dead in bed with sheet over his face. An empty whisky bottle on the nightstand and a bottle of pills with 5 left from the hundred on the label. Apparently it is later recorded that he has a thimble full of whiskey and only 10 pills in his system. Violet has drunk 4 glasses of whisky and an empty whisky bottle is on the nightstand. She has taken many tablets (approx. 40). I have to be careful as this is a translation. I did check twice and that are the figures that came up.

A funeral is held. People are just stunned.

I know the author is trying to make a case that Rory took his life but it is just odd how the ultimate showman would go out like that with no note knowing his sister would be the person to find him.

The book acknowledges contributions from everyone from Iris to Mike McCartney to Ringo Starr. The majority of the people in the book come over very well. Ringo comes over as someone who is eternally restless The Beatles as a band who were in a shambles before they started writing and getting their act together. RSATH were let down on occasion and were also lost because they were a live act when the art of the studio and the songwriter come to the fore. Rory, Johnny, Ty and the rest of the band come over as wonderful raucous funny lads who loved playing music and living the rock n roll lifestyle and it has been a pleasure to translate the book.

[...]With Skiffle and Rock n Roll taking hold of the Uk and Alan , he decides he wants a guitar. At the Cotton Exchange his workmates are discussing the Grand National (Iconic Horse race held in Liverpool for the overseas readers) . They are tipping a hose called Devon Loch and much to Ernie's frustration and disapproval Alan goes to the race and places a large bet on the horse to win. The horse is actually leading with only a couple of hundred feet of the race to complete when it belly flops on the floor for no apparent reason (you can see this on youtube I think) The horse loses and Alan is in shock and very angry. [...]

"Devon Loch Grand National Disaster, 1956. One of the most famous Grand Nationals of all time where the late Dick Francis gallops towards the finish line on HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's horse, Devon Loch. Dick is just yards away from the finish line and is undoubtedly about to win the race when Devon inexplicably jumps up and falls to his stomach. It looks as though the horse sees a fence in front of him. ESB, the horse behind, swoops past Devon Loch who is still scrambling to his feet and wins the Grand National. The Queen Mother famously said, "Oh that's racing" and Dick Francis retired from racing the following year and turned his hand to crime writing."

Thank you for adding the video. if anyone has any queries on the book I will answer if I can . I just did not have the time to post a word for word breakdown of the book but hopefully that gave you a flavour.

Also been reading on Bill Harry's site that Rory changed his name by deed poll is this actually true as in the book all the paperwork in the book regarding the events of 1972 are under the name of Alan Earnest Caldwell. I wonder if it was an urban myth.

Is there a consensus about how many copies of the acetate that the Beatles and the Hurricane's recoded together in Hamburg. On translating Tom Egbers book on Rory Storm Alan Williams purchased four copies but their seems to be wildly differing versions of how many were actually made and the fate of the others

I'll reading the new Mark Lewisohn books in the next weeks. I hope there's some answers in there. I believe Allan Williams mentions four copies as well in his book. Not that this source is regarded reliable.

yes from the 60s....i think they failed miserably... stole this bit....n 1967, at the age of 26, O'Brien collapsed on stage during a performance, and later died due to complications after an appendicitis operation.[42][43] Storm disbanded the Hurricanes and became a disc jockey, working at the Silver Blades Ice Rink in Liverpool, in Benidorm (he was also a water-skiing instructor there) in Jersey and Amsterdam.[4] When Storm's father died, he returned from Amsterdam to Liverpool to be with his mother. He developed a chest infection and could not sleep properly, so he took sleeping pills.